Demography
Summary :
Demography is a study of structure, distribution, change and that causes of population. We study demography because it is basic for study social phenomena.
1. History
about 2000 years ago, for taxation or political representation, population research have been taken place. After 18th-century, early mathematician invent life table forms to conduct insurance systems.
2. Data and methods
Basically, demography use large data to find trends in demographic indicators.
2-1. Demographic indicators
Demographic indicators sensitive to ‘change form’ such as birth(fertility or fecundity) and death(mortality) rates of population. But getting perfect numerical values is impossible, so it is renewed by changing of population.
2-2. fertility and fecundity
Woman’s competence to produce healthy babies. Today, averagely woman breeds (2.1) babies. But according to graph, this fertility rates have been became down. The reasons of these tendency are increased contraceptive use, woman’s educational attainment, country’s level of development, and the cost of children raising.
Childs in undeveloped and developing countries are cheep labor resource, but in developed countries the children are some burden to cost of raising.
2-3. mortality
Mortality searching mainly includes crude death rate, infant mortality rate, and life expectancy. According to graph and researching, crude death rates are high in developed countries, but infant mortality rate and life expectancy are less in developed countries.
According to recent research, education and that schooling's influence on other health-related behaviors make impact on mortality rate. In addition, wealth, race(not intself, by averagely observed side factors), ability to delay gratification are factors of longevity.
3. The Demographic Transition
This search high/low of birth and death rates, and transition of that. About 200 years ago, on the basis of model of Thompson, Blacker, and Notestein, people understand societal changes.
Demographic transition model is as in the following.
Begining of the demographic transition is due to phenomena that death rate's down while birth rate's maintaining. through this transition, people recognize demographic transition, and define this step as second stage. Third stage is decreasing birth rates. Researching for this stage are ongoing. Next, the fourth stage is remaining population stability. This model can apply to most countries
4. Population Growth and Overpopulation
Overpopulation is the condition of exceeding carrying capacity of population. The important thing to determine overpopulation is resource. Most of all, ratio of resources on population is important.
Every year, world's human population goes high, but after 2075 year, world's population will be stable due to many country's trends of declining fertility rates. So less developed countries such as Africa have an important roll in world's population growth.
4-1. Early Projections of Overpopulation
19th century, Thomas Malthus argued that human population grows exponentially while resources tend to grow arithmetically, so people have to control population. But today food resources grow fast enough to support people. Now 'global warming' which is other problem of overpopulation become serious threat.
4-2. Population as a Function of Food availability
Some scholars argued that according to agricultural revolution, increased food availability make population grow. But critics of this idea insist that developed countries which have highest access to food shows low birth rates. So 'food availability' is not only factor of population growth.
4-3. Effects of Overpopulation
It is fact that agricultural production, if food resources distributed evenly, is sufficient to feed everyone living in the world, but it is difficult. So people worry on many problems of overpopulation such as famines, deforestation, pandemic disease and war, and so on.
4-4. Possible solutions to overpopulation
As a mention above, woman education can be a method to solve opverpopulation problems. And effective family planning programs, local renewable energy systems, sustainable agriculture methods and supplies, reforestation, and measures to protect the local environment.
4-5. underpopulation
As a country's fertility rates go down, country's economic level goes down too. So, many countries which have tendency of low fertility make welfare systems to encourage parents to have babies.
5. Migration
The moving to another place in U.S have been happen for retire of older people, or job place. Each place have various migration or immigration rates but today people who live that place worried about if their society's identity will change by immigrants.
6. Urbanization
As world become modern and go through industrialization, many places become urban areas.
6-1. Movement
Especially, developing coutries take place high rates of movement. And cosmopolitanly, urbanization rates have been became high.
6-2. Causes
In rural areas have many problems such as drought or flood. So they can't remain sustainable condition. Also, as industrialization go through, individual of rural area can't fight with big capital.
Because of many factors like job opportunity, health care sercives, or education, people choose urban areas.
6-3. Economic Effects
It can be a chance to make more efficient places. If urbanization is progressed well, residents don't have to pay transportation. and it will be more eco-friendly.
6-4. Other effects
The individual who lives in urban place, like apartment, feel more safety than single-family homes.
7. Chainging forms of urbanization
Urbanization, besides haphazard urbanization, take place with experts who have city plan.
Interesting points & Discussion :
When I read ‘underpopulation’ part, I fell that this problem is general on most of world. Today, low birth rate in Korean society is issue. I think that the biggest reason of low birth rate is ‘cost of raising’.
Actually, Korean is one of the most high educate-wanting country. So children’s parents make their children go to various academy and that costs are not that cheap. Averagely, the cost of raising each child, in Korean society, is about 2 – 3 hundred million won. So there was a short funny story that some woman who take her babies in both hands tell “Oh, you take 4 hundred million won in her hand.”
In addition, Korean woman’s job rates become high though that jobs are irregular part-time job. But when company adopt a person who work for their company, people generally choose men, not woman. This because woman have risk of stopping her job for breed her baby. And it results in bad effect to choice woman. So the penalties in job environment make birth rate down too. Woman and man work same, but why raising child was entrust to one gender? If it makes problem, isn’t this trend must be change, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment